Ebay - Out of the Box Ideas

Ebay. Everyone knows what ebay is. Looking for something out of the ordinary? Try ebay! Looking for a great deal? Try ebay! Not only does everyone know about ebay, but it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You have customers shopping for what you are selling every minute of every day. What a great market place! The $100,000 question is, how do I take advantage of this? Well, you need to have something to sell. Pretty simple.

Chances are you have things laying around the house to sell right now. That’s great, but if you want to create a true income stream, you need to have a business plan that includes a source for your inventory. I always recommend buying wholesale lots, building and growing your inventory of items that sell very well. That’s what worked for me, but there are other interesting ways to go about this. Take a look at some of these out of the box ideas:

Garage sales

Garage sales are a pretty good place to find stuff to resale, but they can take a lot of time on your part for very modest returns, unless you really come across something great. If you are going to go this route, I would definitely mix it with the consignment idea.

Consignment

I would suggest that you advertise locally in your community to sell their unwanted items on eBay for them. You could also tie this in with working the garage sales. Offer to take their unsold items off their hands, list it on ebay and split the profit with them. If you make your split with them based on the sales price minus the shipping, it makes things much easier than trying to figure what your shipping costs are, what your listing costs are, etc. Make sure you write up an agreement, and take the items with you so they are in your possession, you don’t want to sell an item and find out later that it is lost or given away.

Storage Auctions

Chances are you have a few mini-storage complexes within driving distance. These can offer a treasure trove for the ebay seller. When someone does not pay their rent for a period of time, these mini-storage companies auction off the contents of their unit. Usually they will auction off the entire contents of each unit in one large lot. These auction dates and times can be found in your local paper, they have to publish them. Usually you can take a look in the storage unit, but cannot go through the boxes or items. For a small investment, you can obtain a large amount of different items that you can sell.

Estate sales

These are like treasure hunts. You can find a lot of quality items. The trick is, is to watch the newspapers close, and make sure you bring enough money for the high end items that you can sell for even more. Also, you have the opportunity to buy bulk lots at some of these sales.

Ebay itself

Yes, ebay itself is a great source for inventory. They have a wholesale section, and you can often times find large lots for a very good price. You can also search out government auctions, a lot of state and local governments auction off lots of various items. Do a little digging, find out when they list their auctions, with a bit of research, you could have a great source!